It’s been too damn hot to cook, so I thought I would give you my thoughts on something you can do, sitting in the air conditioning, drinking a cool beverage of your choice.
A few weeks ago, I discovered a new show on Netflix, and it was clearly perfectly aligned to my interests that I have to assume that Raidió Teilifís Éireann and Mind the Gap Films created a show just for me.
Lords and Ladles is an Irish show where three Irish chefs, Derry Clarke, Catherine Fluvio, and Paul Flynn, travel to different Great Houses in Ireland, and cook a fancy-pants dinner for the owners and guests using historical recipes that are related to the house’s history. It’s great because these are trained chefs, so they know how to cook, and they know how to cook fancy. They aren’t really food historians, which results in some hilarious hijinks.
The format has the three chefs pick randomly who is going to be in charge of the actual cooking, who is going to be in charge of gathering some of the more colorful ingredients, and who is going to learn about the history of the house and then get to eat the dinner. This is smart, because three strong personalities that are used to being in charge in the kitchen could use some guidance on who is, in fact, in charge. And this way it’s spread out evenly.
The menus range from foods from the 1600’s to a replica of a dinner served at Ballywalter Park in 1902. They’re not always great about telling us the source of the recipes, but one book they use is Hannah Glasse, who I have used as a source before. At least a couple of times they used recipes from the handwritten cookery book from the house itself – I swear I almost fainted. I WANT ONE.
Part of the fun of this show is watching these modern chefs be a little stymied by histroical recipes. They have a HUGE budget, so they’re not constrained by finances when it comes to hard to find ingredients. In the very first episode, Paul was the head chef, and was given a recipe that involved a lot of organ parts…including beef eyeballs.
Which he promptly said he was not going to use, because of something about “having to adjust to a modern palate.”
Now, I started watching this one Friday evening when I had some wine and I’m not gonna lie, there was some yelling on Twitter. I get yelly when there’s wine. I get yelly when someone who has the EYEBALLS PROVIDED FOR THEM wimps out.
And oh, did I yell.
https://twitter.com/redheadedgirl/status/1002720780256468992
There’s a couple of times where they make a choice based on modern aesthetics – not deboning a turkey when the recipe clearly calls for the turkey to be deboned, for example – that I didn’t like. But they’re generally very game (har har) about trying stuff, even when it sounds gross. Marinating mutton in sheep’s blood apparently turned out really tasty!
One of the things you notice when you see full menus being prepared, and this is especially true for the upper gentry, is that there is a LOT of meat, it’s VERY rich, and there aren’t a lot of veggies involved. (If you look at Stuart era portraits, 1603-1714, everyone looks super constipated. I promise you, they WERE super constipated.) There are a lot of portions of animals that got eaten that we really don’t eat anymore. The tongue, the shin, cow feet for gelatin, sure, but even I hadn’t thought of eating the soft palette of cow before.
My main complaint with the show is that while they do delve into the history of these great houses to some extent, they don’t really engage with the more unpleasant aspects of Irish history. These were great houses. They were and are owned by Anglo-Irish gentry. The relations between landlords and tenants was… not great, shall we say? Really bad? Morally terrible? And there’s no engagement on that front in the first season. There’s a very brief touch on “Paul is going to learn about the link between slavery and sugar” (To which he responded “I don’t know what those things have to do with each other.”) except…he didn’t. At all. It was kind of disappointing.
For all my drunken yelling about it, I really enjoyed this show. I know there are two more seasons that have aired in Ireland, and I HOPE Netflix will give them to us and SOON. I did love seeing the houses and the kitchens and how the modern chefs adapted. Some of these recipes I want to try, and some of them I’m glad someone else did.
I know some of you can be a bit squeamish when it comes to meat, so heads up: there’s no discretion shots when it comes to skinning rabbits or peeling sheep testicles. Be warned.
Have you watched Lords and Ladles? What did you think?
This sounds quite interesting. Adding to your comment regarding the richness of the food- not only were they constipated, they also had gout.
Can’t speak for others, but for myself I’m grateful to live in modern times with modern palates. Some of the dishes described sounded rather odious to me, and though I will happily watch this I know I’ll be cringing when I do.
Sounds like a fun premise but I doubt I could handle the cowardice (you SIGNED UP to do a show about historical menus, so quit being a whiner about the ingredients) or the damn-blasted ignorance (slavery and sugar?).
Full disclosure: I watch the Bachelor but THIS SHOW would frustrate me.
This kind of sounds similar to the BBC show, ‘The Supersizers’, with Giles Coren and Sue Perkins.
We watched this after I saw your Twitter comments. Completely agree about wishing there was more historical context both for the food on the menus and how those people could afford them.
I agree about the disconnect between “fancy Irish houses” and how tf these people got them and maintained them I was googling everyone showcased to see what their family line was and if they were really Irish or not.
But on the surface it’s a very fun show and I enjoy watching it.
Well, there goes anything productive for the rest of this weekend. 🙂
The whole “Irish Big House” subject tends to be treated with a degree of caution in Irish media. The war of Independence was only 100 years ago after all. Add in the Troubles, which only reached ceasefire 30 years ago and you’ll see a desire to not rock the boat by reminding people of just how shitty it used to be here. In another decade or so we’ll be able to be more objective, but now, it’s still too soon.
“(To which he responded “I don’t know what those things have to do with each other.”)”
WHAT? WHAT. Whaaat? How can someone not know that? Esp someone that close to Great Britain??? And then they don’t even deal with it…? Yeesh.
My house rabbits have told me I’m not allowed to watch anything involving humans eating rabbits anyway though, and I’m fine with that.
That potato pie with all the butter and the sugar from the first episode is all my cooking friend and I could talk about for a wile. It was an insane amount of butter,,,
I grew with grandparents who had working farm, so most of the butchering wouldn’t make me squeamish, though I wouldn’t eat some of that stuff.
@C: When I was a child living in Europe in the 80s and 90s, the IRA and Sinn Féin were actively blowing stuff up. I just turned 40 this year. I mean, I remember when the BBC first allowed Gerry Adams’ voice to be broadcast without distortion in *1994* so…yeah I can see why maybe some of the history wasn’t delved into too deeply. Related, I about had a heart attack when one of my college friends was going to meet with him as part of a J-Term course on Irish history in 1998; they didn’t end up meeting with him after all, he had some sort of scheduling conflict BUT STILL THOUGH.
(That being said the show does look interesting.)
Have you ever watched The Supersizers Go and The Supersizers Eat? BBC production presented by Giles Cohen and Sue Perkins. Exploration of food and history through different British eras. Poor Sue, she suffered through many bouts of constipation.
Yes, we’ve seen The Sueprsizers! http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2016/03/stuff-you-should-be-watching-the-supersizers-go/
And that is a good point about the recency of Irish history and conflicts (but still).
It was an insane amount of butter
I remain gobsmacked by Eliza Acton’s recipe for a six-egg omelet, to be cooked in ¼ lb (= ONE WHOLE STICK) of butter.
I may have squealed out loud to myself when this come up in my Netflix recommendations! Between the “new” season of GBBO on PBS, a second season of Nailed It! and this, I shall have much happy food TV to watch. And thanks to the comments for reminding me that I need to see if I can watch Supersizers Go somewhere other than Hulu.
Never shall I doubt the recommendations of RHG. This show had the quiet humor that is just so Irish. If you revel in screaming rants of celebrity chefs this show won’t be for you. It’s just lovely! The recipes are grand and the castles are very impressive. Perfect Sunday tv fare. Thank you RHG!!
P.S. Our national day of commemoration is to remember all the men who have died in any past wars http://www.military.ie/en/info-centre/df-ceremonial/national-day-of-commemoration/ it’s only been since 1985 those who served during WWI and WWII were commemorated as well.
The War (World War I) memorial gardens (http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/dublin/warmemorialgardens/) were neglected between independence and 1988. Which says a lot about our collective disengagement with our contribution to the Empire.
Though it irritates the heck out of me when I see UK programs on the Empire where they fail to even mention Ireland as ever having been part of the empire, when we were pretty much second (after Wales)
Oh and if you can find it I also recommend The Zoo by RTE https://dublinzoo.ie/News/66-198/The-Zoo-TV-Series-is-back-with-brand-new-episodes.aspx
ClaireC – you can see almost all of the Supersizers episodes on YouTube.
Well, this is weird… I did my work experience in Mind The Gap films in transition year. I worked on their programme aimed at the hearing-impaired. Last place I expected to see a reference to them was on here!
Totally agree with everything C and Deirdre said (including the rec of The Zoo) about how recent all those issues are and how it impacts how we address them in media. Deirdre, I agree – to watch British tv, you’d sometimes forget Ireland even exists. Even on their weather reports, the Republic of Ireland just disappears off the map, even when you can see continental Europe off to the right! Even the Irish actors/presenters/personalities well-known on tv and film there are basically claimed and referred to as British. Infuriating.
I haven’t watched Lords and Ladles but can pretty much guarantee it won’t compare at all to the wonder that is The Supersizers. An Irish show I do recommend is Reeling In The Years, which is FABULOUS, available on dvd and relevant to anyone interested in Irish culture/history over the last few decades. Each episode documents one year in Irish and global history, uses subtitles to inform about the events being addressed, and uses popular music from the year the episode is about instead of narration. (And if there was a big U2 or Cranberries hit that year, you can bet they’ll use the feck out of it.)
But mostly, I really hate Irish tv. Either it’s forky and cringeworthingly “Oirish” or it’s trying too hard to be modern by styling its talk and reality shows after British and American ones. That just does not suit the Irish character at all, (and it makes no sense as we already get all the British channels in addition to our own, so why not just be true to ourselves? Father Ted being the perfect example, lol.)
Anyway, the reason I’m blathering on about that is because a lot your criticisms about this show are what I see as quite typical of Irish tv, apart from the very good RTE News. Not edited smoothly enough, not researched thoroughly enough (HOW can he not know the link between slavery and sugar?), irritating personalities (that might just be my opinion…) and a general lack of care, consistency and organisation. This sort of show inevitably feels like some media students have made a good attempt at some course work, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a national broadcaster has produced it.
This sounds great. However, I feel very sad that Irish readers have discussed why there’s not a lot of deep context about the great house situation and they’ve gotten comments like “but still.” It’ is very dismissive and not respectful of their perspective and experience.
Does anyone know who the narrator was for season 1 of Lords and Ladles?
What is the music that plays in between the scenes, it sounds very familar? Possibly from another BBC show?